Saturday, October 2, 2010

"Thyme" for Seeds!

Happy Fall Y'all! It has sure been busy at my house. No one told me Master Gardening school would be so..well..hard! Sorry I haven't been visiting your blogs lately. I study all the time! And, all of a sudden, it's fall! The temps are cooler, pumpkins are at the markets, as are mums and scarecrows. Love it! In the business of life, I almost forgot that it was "thyme" to plant wildflower seeds. Well, I didn't really forget-but the temperature was so hot here mid September I thought I better wait. I called the Wildseed Farm to verify, and they agreed-"wait for October" they said.So, as I turned my calender to October yesterday, I realized the time had come. I had to pull up a lot of flowers from this bed around the tree. That was quite a job, both physically and emotionally. The flowers were leggy and looking pretty sad, but they still had blooms on them. I hate, hate to pull up things in bloom, but I did have seeds ready to plant, so I got busy. Last night I soaked the bonnet seeds, and bright and early this morning I was ready to start scattering. Wildflower seeds must touch the soil, you don't really plant them. After soaking all night, the bluebonnet seeds became plump and felt like tiny little rocks. Very easy to grab a handfull and toss them here and there. I love scattering seeds-makes me know how Johnny Appleseed must have felt! :) I do have a few rosettes coming up from last year-can you see this little one in front of the rock-but I have so little space to have flowers in the back, I use the beds to plant annuals which makes it hard for the bonnets to re-seed successfully. I scattered seeds everywhere I could find a bare spot. They may not germinate in all spots, but why not try and hope for spring blooms. This sunny spot is the corner wildflower bed that has only crazy wild things in it. I scattered bluebonnet seeds, mexican hat, horse mint, standing cypress and indian paintbrush here. In spring, I will add plains coreopsis and ox eye daisies.

I love seed planting day in fall! It teaches me patience, gives me hope for the future, and brings me joy! I can't wait to see what surprises these little seeds will bring me next spring!

"The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They always look forward to doing better than they have ever done before!"

11 comments:

I'm loving ALL your pics. I'm sooooo glad bunny showed up with the pumpkins! Grandma had the boys/guys over yesterday to break up and level some of her beds and growing areas. I know she "seeded" her new bluebonnet raised bed that she'll be able to see from her kitchen table....and she did something with her daisies (stop giggling at me..lol) where she was asking all of us if we were sure we didn't want any daisies...my aunt was thrilled we didn't and took them all.

Your mom was "thinning" her daisies I would guess. Wish I had some. My daisies are all but gone now. Glad you left the flowers for your aunt--and bet she is glad too. I am hoping to plants seeds at Mothers on Wednesday...after our trip to the Arobretum! :)

Those blue bonnets will be awesome next year! I just got back from a trip with about 40 gardeners to the Shadow nursery which included a few MGs in training. Yup, they were talking of studying too. This week vegetables. I remember those days. Study hard!

How nice to know you're studying to be a MG! It's in my 'thoughts and plans for the future'...just not the present! I keep saying, 'someday'! It sounds hard and I'm not sure my studying skills, nor my memory, is up to the challenge!I don't like pulling blooming plants out, or even cutting them back, either! But sometimes it is necessary. You had a clear plan which helped make the task easier to do. I hope your Bluebonnets will be gorgeous in the spring!

Lola-the grass is Little Bunny Fountain Grass. Isn't it cute! I think I will look for more next year since it did so well.

Hi Jan! Oh girl, the reason I study all the time is that my old brain cannot retain all the information they give us. I didn't know that much about botany or horticultural, so MG class has been hard for me---but it sure has been rewarding! You should indeed try it sometime. Happy Gardening!

Susie--I hope the seeds do well. I never know what will happen when I scatter those seeds. There is always a spring surprise somewhere. :)

I thought I recognized it. I just received mine but I put it in a pot at least till next Spring & hopefully I'll know by then where I want it. Maybe on the East side of my home. Morning sun there & shade in the afternoon. It's so hot here.